Why should diversity influence your organisation?

Energy Jobline concludes an insightful interview with Torin Ellis, diversity leader and winner of Season 4 of “Top Recruiter: Reign of the Bosses” Read all about it!

Today we can see that diversity has an influence on decisions and processes within considerably more organisations than there has been historically. They implement diverse procedures. The question I ask is do the Board of Directors, C-Suite Leaders, Department Heads, Leaders of Business Units, the HR staff and the entire workforce understand and support the benefits diverse teams can bring to a business?

“I think it’s the collaboration. I find so much joy in hearing from other people’s angles and experiences.” Says Torin.

“What makes them tick? Why did you approach the problem in this particular way? How did you arrive at the solution based on where you went to school or where you did an internship?”

“Why is it that you have this high degree of empathy because of your religious background or your cultural upbringing? For me that is such an incredible motivation to getting to the bottom line, which is to grow and be successful.”

The argument against this, which Torin fully appreciates, is the organisations that have found success without the implementation of clear diversity measures.

“Google, for example, have grown to be incredibly successful without a measurable percentage of diverse representation. As a result, they could successfully argue that with their minimal representation of diversity, there is little need to focus on such.”

“I would counter that position and say we could make even more products/services, that touched on areas of education, food desserts, community engagement, and so on if we had a different sensitivity and representation towards diversity. Diversity is about the business case and more in the pursuit of building a positive impact on the culture, the community and the way the brand is received.”

This is great, but how can an organization leadership and the HR Manager of a company take a more active role in diversity? How and what do you change within the current strategy of a business to enable diversity and inclusion to become a theme of that company’s culture?

“I think two areas which are often overlooked are the meeting and travel schedules in leadership.” Torin replies.

“This is what I begin to work on with clients. I say to them, ‘If diversity is important to you, then you will have certain types of meetings involved in your month, quarters and throughout the year.’”

“If you’re not taking meetings from associations, individuals, and organizations of diverse socio-economic, demographics, ethnic, differently abled, gender based, educational and religious ranks, or if you’re not travelling to their events, then you leave me to question their sincerity. Their participation is the first step in ensuring diversity and inclusion are highly pursued and represented inside their organisation.”

There are many workforce trends that are seen to be emerging in the next three to five years when it comes to diversity and inclusion, which we were right to assume Torin is consistently exposed to.

“I see that organisations will be forced to fish in different ponds. They cannot continue to look for talent in the same places.”

“They can’t continue this narrative that there is a war for talent when they are excluding so many other academic institutions and excluding so many other phenomenal cities where talented individuals may lie.”

“I think that technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality will begin to impact how organisations build their teams. It’s really interesting to me how the growth of technology can enhance the escalation of the diversity topic.”

Want to read more from Torin Ellis? Get your copy of Ellis’ latest book: “RIP the Resume: Job Search & Interview Power Prep” on Amazon today by clicking here.